Poetic Historiosophy ("The Alps") by F.I. Tyutchev in choral works a cappella

Barabash Oxana Sergeevna PhD in Art History Associate Professor, Conducting Department, Saratov State Conservatory named after L. V. Sobinov 410028, Russia, Caratovskaya oblast', g. Saratov, ul. Rabochaya, 29/39, kv. 231 BarabashOksana@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

The problem of interpretation of a poetic work in the musical art is very multifaceted. The complexity of the artistic image that arises in choral music is due to the fact that the initial creative impulse that arose in the depths of the poet's subconscious (if a choral composition is created on a ready-made poetic text), the composer and, finally, the performer, cannot be separated from the personality of each of them, as well as from the time of creation of the work, attitude and the artist's worldview. The purpose of this work is to analyze the interaction of melos and logos in a cappella choral works written on the poem "The Alps" by F.I. Tyutchev.

In this regard, it is necessary to briefly highlight the problem of interpretation and reconstruction of the poet's artistic world.

For more than a hundred years, literary critics, philosophers, literary historians have been studying the work of F. Tyutcheva N. N. Nekrasov in 1850 in the article "Russian minor poets" and I. Aksakov in the biography of the poet (1874) admire the plasticity of F.'s poetry. V. Soloviev in the article "Poetry of F.I.Tyutchev" (1895) for the first time in the history of criticism deeply analyzing the poet's work, concludes about the theory of the evolution of nature, which is born of the Christian worldview of F.I. Tyutchev. Tyutchev. The result of the victory of light over chaos, the dark principle, is the appearance of a spiritual person capable of conquering sin, death, the appearance of unity achieved in the struggle.  V. Solovyov emphasizes that the identity of F. Tyutcheva, unlike many other poets, consists in a harmonious fusion of a poet and a philosopher-thinker. In 1911, in V. Bryusov's critical and biographical essay "F. I.Tyutchev. The meaning of his work"the idea of the poet's pantheism arises, continued by D. Merezhkovsky (1915) in the article "Two Secrets of Russian poetry". S. Frank ("Cosmic feeling in Tyutchev's poetry") enters into a polemic with the authors of the works, clarifying that there is no contradiction between the pantheism of the lyrics of nature and the sincere Orthodox Christian faith of the poet. A number of profound literary and critical articles were created by K. Balmont, V. Andreev, N. Otsup, V. Weidle, B.Zaitsev, G. Meyer, proving that the content of F.'s poetry Tyutchev is precisely the divine principle in nature. After the Revolution on the Orthodox worldview F.Tyutchev was not mentioned, calling his lyrics pantheistic. A holistic, systematic approach to the study of F. Tyutchev was proposed in 1928 by L. Pumpyansky ("The Poetry of F.I.Tyutchev"), revealing the historical and philosophical connections of F. Tyutchev's poetry with Schellingianism, with Schopenhauer sources of a number of ideas. Further study of the poetic heritage of the great lyricist is methodologically very diverse. Soviet literary critics perceived the poet's work through an atheistic platform. Until the end of the XX century , the literary and philosophical literature was dominated by the idea of F. Tyutchev as a Russian poet, but of the European tradition (L. Pumpyansky, D. Blagoy, K. Pigarev, B. Bukhstab, Yu. Lotman), a Westernist poet (Yu. Tynyanov, G. Pospelov), an atheist or a pantheist (V. Bryusov, V. Kasatkina), or even a pagan (B. Kozyrev, K. Isupov).

In the works of modern researchers: V. Nepomnyashchy, A. Yesaulov, M. Dunaev, B. Tarasov, S. Miloradovich, T. Zhirmunskoy, V. Suzi, T. Koshemchuk, A. Kazin, forgotten truths are revived. The poet's Orthodox worldview, which is reflected in the poetic language, is justified by documentary sources, biographical information, letters and journalism. Today, it becomes clear that, if we do not take into account the picture of the world of the artist of the word, the study will reflect the researcher's worldview, and not an objective view of creativity and the figurative structure of F.'s poetry. Tyutchev. Science returns to the tradition of understanding Russian classical literature, which was interrupted in the XX century, which was born of Orthodoxy. Effective in this case will be the methodology of analyzing the poet's worldview, which coincides with the values of the object.

It is in this vein that literary critics, in addition to landscape, philosophical, and love lyrics, are attracted by the original layer of historiosophical works preserved in the poetic heritage of F. Tyutchev. The poet reflected his understanding of the historical process, his view of the course of the history of Russia in poetic form in the poem "The Alps", created in 1830.

Through the azure twilight of the night, the snowy Alps look; Their dead eyes stink with icy horror. They are charmed by some kind of power, They Doze Until the Dawn rises, they are menacing and foggy, Like fallen kings!..

But the East will only turn red, The disastrous charms will end – The first crown in the sky will enlighten the elder Brother.

And a stream runs from the head of the big brother To the smaller ones, And the Whole resurrected family shines in crowns of gold!..

October? 1830 ^{[9, p. 112]}.

Literary critics note the presence in the poet's work of cycles of small poetic compositions that are semantically related to each other. The poet himself copied individual poems onto sheets of paper (large or double) "and numbered them" ^{[4, p. 190]}. So, the poet himself combines the following opuses into a similar cycle: 1) I drove through the Livonian fields..; 2) On the road; 3) Autumn evening (There are autumn evenings in the light ...); 4) Leaves. Such a list is found on a sheet of double paper. There are a few more on the back: 5) The Alps; 6) Mal'aria; 7) This day, I remember, for me.

In the above–mentioned poems, one can clearly distinguish the leitmotives associated with life collisions ""man – history - nature", explicit or implicit oppositions of the "earthly world" and the "heavenly world", "North" and "South", but they are simultaneously the leitmotives of Tyutchev's lyrics in general ..." ^{[5, pp. 44-59]}.

What, then, is the content of the poetic opus "Alps" related to this cycle? The opinions of researchers are polemical in nature. Everyone focuses on certain details of the text content, language phrases, metaphors, interpreting the meaning of what they read. Here are just some examples.

V. Bryusov notes that the peaks of the Alps are close to the sky, and the relationship between the heavenly and the earthly is the subject of increased interest of the poet throughout his work. For the researcher F. Tyutchev is a poet of space, and the poem clearly shows the natural philosophical views of F. Tyutchev ^{[4, p. 166]}.

According to D. Blagogo, this poem can be attributed to landscape lyrics. He notes the fact that F. Tyutchev is interested in movement, transitional states, change of phenomena. Deep realism of images, extreme accuracy, subtlety of verbal drawing are the distinctive features of the poet's lyrics, the origins of which are in his pantheism ^{[1, p. 451]}.

V. Kasatkina writes that the Alpine peaks are seen by the poet as fallen kings-brothers who are conquered by an unknown force and exude icy horror. In the morning, these destructive charms disappear, and the resurrection of the royal family, which radiates light, takes place. "This leads to the romanticization of the picture, revealing the conflict of the dead night darkness with light, a symbol of life" ^{[4, p. 193]}. The literary critic also notes the proximity of F. Tyutchev's poetic language and figurative content to romantic Western lyrics.

A. Grigorieva notices that behind the painting of the landscape F. Tyutchev faces deep philosophical questions, problems of life and death, mental anguish and anxiety.  As evidence, the researcher analyzes the poet's vocabulary, highlighting archaisms that give the opus a special solemnity, creating a grandiose image filled with a certain cosmicity. With the help of stable poeticism (chapter, gold) in the second stanza, an image of heavenly light reflected in an earthly phenomenon is created ^{[2, p. 37]}.

T. Koshemchuk notes the Christian character of the poet's lyrics and it is there that he finds the origins of the imagery of the poem "Alps". Majestic mountains, charmed by "some kind of power" are formidable and covered with fog only until the morning hour, until the bright moment of "ascension". Such a threshold state could be conveyed poetically deeply by a master of the word, such as F. Tyutchev. The Alps in the morning bring the news not of death, but "of resurrection" ^{[7, p. 151]}.  

M. Dunaev notes that the poet catches temporary, unstable, fleeting states, transitional moments "from one particular time to another. The poem is thoroughly imbued with a sense of time; a state unique in its manifestation" ^{[8, p. 70]}. The poet similarly conveys a joyful and at the same time painful state: a heavenly revelation, which is unearthly, heavenly, immaculate, religious.

The view of the poem "Alps" as a philosophical landscape is the same for the above-mentioned researchers.

However, many literary critics consider the artistic image of the poem "Alps" in a different plane of meaning, finding a different subtext. This group of researchers (B. Tarasov ^{[8, pp. 7-68]}, G. Slovtsov ^{[7, pp. 154-161]}, M. Raslovlev ^{[7, pp. 264-278]}) include the poem in the historiosophical concept of the Russian poet. The historiosophical views of F. Tyutchev, his thoughts on the Orthodox monarchical future of Russia have been preserved in articles, letters ("Russia and the West" ^[10], "Russia and Germany" ^{[8, pp. 420-451]}, "Russia and the Revolution" ^{[8, pp. 451-484]}) and in the poetic heritage: "To the Gank" (1841), "Russian Geography" (1848), "Dawn" (1849), "Then only in full triumph" (1850), "Tongues are raging for the third year" (1850), "Napoleon" (1850), "These poor villages" (1855).

For F. Tyutchev's concept, which is embodied in poetry and journalism, has some constants. The poet sharply contrasts the Orthodox civilization with the Western one, noting the spiritual impoverishment of the Western civilization. F. Tyutchev saw the future of Russia in Orthodoxy. It is faith (he writes about this in his journalistic works) that should give the world both enlightenment and the unification of the Slavs. In Russia, as in a special world where there is a higher spiritual and political vocation, he saw salvation, allegorically or directly including historiosophical views in the texts of poems: "And the vaults of ancient Sofia,/ In renewed Byzantium/ They will again overshadow the altar of Christ/ Fall before him, O Tsar of Russia,/ And stand up like an all-Slavic tsar" ^{[7, p. 266]}.

The figurative content, rhythm, intonation of the poem "The Alps" are close to other works of the poet: "The East is doubtfully silent" or "To the Ganka" (1841) ("Here in the middle of this dark night, / Here, on the Prague heights, / A good man with a modest hand / Lit up the lighthouse in the dark. // Oh, what suddenly rays/ All the edges lit up!/ Exposed before us/ The whole Slavic land!"^{[7, p. 149]}). The transitional state from pitch-black night to blinding dawn is synonymous with resurrected mountains.

Thus, it is possible to note the double mediative thought of the poem "Alps". In addition to the philosophical landscape, in which the themes of the resurrection are reflected, the idea of the transformation of not an individual, but the Russian Empire is manifested.

The poem found its embodiment in choral compositions for a cappella choir, written by P. Chesnokov and S. Taneyev. Later, the poem "The Alps" will form the basis of M. Koval's musical opus.

S. Taneyev created a choral work in 1900. For a talented composer, choral music was the foundation that was able to embody grandiose ideas that stand above the level of everyday life; lofty ideas that rise above the problems of an individual. Two choirs: "Stars" and "Alps", Op. 15 were written for the Synodal Choir. The ability to hear his compositions before they were performed by a specific choral group, a deep connection with interpreters made it possible to create truly large-scale choral opuses in which the choral sonority approached the orchestral one.

The choral miniature "The Alps" by S. Taneyev is two-part in form. The first section, which begins in d-moll, is very gloomy in nature. Complements the image tempo designation: andante. The second sentence contains an indication of the author: misterioso (mysteriously). This is a kind of prelude to the second part – a four-voice fugue written in the same D-dur and at a new tempo: allegro conspiracy about (soon with enthusiasm).

The poetic text is written by a two-part chorus. S. Taneyev in the metrical basis of the first section relies on three-part. Syncopations, introductions with a weak beat, introductory seventh chords illustrate the unstable, unstable state of nature. The climactic word "smite" on fff is prepared either by ascending or descending chromatic movement, gradual dynamic increase and polyphonic conducting ("their eyes are dead"). Up to the second climax ("slumbering, menacing and foggy"), the musical material develops polyphonically. For S. Taneyev, the semantic load is carried by the introductory seventh chord with a quart, then with a third in the key of d-moll (the verb "napping"), which accounts for a strong proportion of the beat in the dynamics of f. The appearance of the chord gives birth to a new figurative and semantic content, which F. does not have. Tyutchev. In the work of S. Taneyev, the Alps are presented as formidable giants who stink with horror. The darkness of the night and its doom are hyperbolized. The poetic primary source for the composer becomes a kind of program that dictates the main idea and mood: a source for the appearance of a new image, musical, different from the semantics of the poetic text. Such a broad interpretation of a literary work allows the composer to sensitively convey not a high spiritual content, but its main orientation, while revealing and complementing the main orientation of poetic thought. A new contrasting image appears in S. Taneyev's chorus in the reprise of the first section (the period of the unified structure). The composer puts a dolce remark and changes the fret color to a major one ("But the East will only turn red, / The end of the disastrous charms"). For the poet, the dawn (this is the entire second section of the poem) is a gradual transition, an action slowly unfolding in time. S. Taneyev has changed the scope of the poetic source: the time of dawn is instantaneous. After just 8 bars on f, after the staccato stroke, an action verb ("end") appears on an unstressed syllable, and with a fermata on the last vowel. In the quiet sonority of legato, the fugue begins (the second part). Gradually, the dynamic sonority increases (mf, f), the stroke (marcato) changes, symbolizing the sun's rays illuminating the earth. S. Taneev interprets the poetic text in an original way, freely handles the tempo, accentuates the weak syllables of the text, transfers the climax to the second syllable (the lexeme "crowns"): the chorus sounds in a rather high tessitura, the melodies of one of the themes are intonationally close to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" (5 bars). The culmination of the composition is a coda in which the polyphonic texture condenses, turns into homophonic and the chord verticals on fff sound thick and full and solemn (maestoso). Conclusion: a full turn with the plagal complement of the minor S, as an echo of the vanished night, darkness; subdominant organ point and the final stop (fermata) on the D-dur tonic. The repetition of the last words of the fugue makes it possible to emphasize the semantic peak in the text "the whole resurrected family" more clearly. For the composer, a hymn, a solemn song, sounds in the final bars of the choral composition. This is the joy of sunrise. The victory of the morning light over the forces of night. In the first part, the unity of statics and movement is still felt, in the second – there is clearly a continuous movement towards the center of light, which asserts the sunrise as a phenomenon of Truth, Truth. The main idea of the work is expressed by all elements of the musical language, including counterpoint. The tasks facing the performing team are very difficult. These are, first of all, polyphonic difficulties associated with timbre tasks, a dynamic ensemble, the need to create fluidity, continuity of the development of the musical fabric and, at the same time, a clear structure, form. These are the accents, the culminating points that fall on the non-elementary words in the poetic text. With the complication of the texture, there is a difficulty associated with the different pronunciation of the text. Polyphonic plexus of voices, imitations in which it is easy to lose the philosophical meaning of a poetic opus are an important performing task for the choir director. Acoustically, in counterpoint, with inattention on the part of the conductor, vowels will stand out, and agree. Those who play a meaning-distinguishing function may be "lost". Thus, the semantic content of the poet's poem in the vocal line, combining different voices, becomes one of the priorities.

S. Taneeva, as well as F. Tyutchev was called by art historians in different ways. For N. Rimsky-Korsakov, he is a neoclassicist, for N. Myaskovsky, a romantic with a huge temperament, I. Belza calls him a Russian Bach, and T. Levaya – a classicized romantic. Such polemical conclusions testify to the synthesis of the composer's thinking. As V. Protopopov writes: "the development of the melodic principle in musical thinking" ^[5] for S. Taneev in the development of counterpoint technique was the main goal.

For S. Taneyev, according to his aesthetic concept, in a perfect work of art, a single whole should be: 1) a deep spiritual content that gives rise to kindness, love, joy in each of the people and in humanity as a whole; 2) a perfect artistic form executed with great skill; 3) genuine compositional excitement, experience, arising at the time of creation of the essay.

Such a true creation for S. Taneyev is something that comes from the depths of the heart, from the soul, something that the composer himself suffered. He writes: "The purpose of artistic creativity is the increment of spiritual existence, its creation" ^{[6, p. 242]}.  The word for S. Taneyev is a source of thought. But it is the melody that reveals the word like a flower, reveals to the listener its essence, the idea. Asceticism, love, conciliarity – these basic concepts form the core of Russian culture for the composer. Often the poems of Russian poets (A. Tolstoy, A. Khomyakov, F. Tyutchev) became the subject of the composer's close attention, since they also understood the word as an expression of truth. Many researchers notice this special, spiritual alignment of the composer's lyre with the Christian "coordinate system", although S. Taneev himself is by no means a believer. But, as for F. Tyutchev, in his interpretive decision, the basis is the direction towards light, rebirth. And, as a great master, S. Taneyev is not synonymous in mediative thought to the full extent of F. Tyutchev. In his choral work, there is another deepest meaning that complements what the poet said, faith in truth, goodness, as the highest value.

P. Chesnokov, a student of S. Taneyev, creates a choral miniature "Alps" based on poems by F. Tyutcheva is also for mixed a cappella choir. For P. Chesnokov, the choir was the most perfect musical instrument with a rich timbral palette and orchestral colors. The artistic and performing capabilities of such a team are truly limitless. The first sounds of the choir, in the absence of a bass part in the choral sonority, the high tessitura of the tenor part create a feeling of a shaky unstable state. The harmonic language of the opening bars of the chorus is unusual, the slow tempo complements the image. As if the massive peaks of the mountains dimly twinkling in the night – basses turning on in 4 bars in octave unison in the quietest dynamics.

The completion of the first phrase on a tonic without a tert tone brings a sense of a certain spaciousness, emptiness. The melodic line of the second phrase, entrusted to the basses, also sounds in octave unison ("Their dead eyes stink with icy horror"). Immobility, "deadened", static in the image is also achieved by the unison of sopranos and tenors at the organ point of the tonic, but by the end of the construction ("they stink with horror") chromaticisms appear in the viola part. The section ends with a dominant. After the minor basic key (g-moll), the appearance of the second sentence ("By the power of a certain charm ...") in the major (D-dur), the texture also changes: there are themes-echoes – as if timid, the first rays of the sun, foreshadowing the dawn. The climax of the first movement, when the choir (with the exception of the soprano part) reprises the phrase "like fallen kings" in the smallest dynamics, is prepared by the organ point of the basses, against which chords sound in other voices: unstable, unresolved. Frozen mountains, frozen in anticipation of the morning, are created by the composer dominant to the tonality of the next section of the form (G-dur) in a low register.

The second part of the choir "Alps" by P. Chesnokov presents a contrast relative to the first in tempo (lively), in terms of tonal development (eponymous major). All elements of the musical language form a different imagery. The semantics of a different time of day, morning, striving for the light is emphasized not only by the off-beat introduction, major fret coloring, but also by the appearance of elements of imitation development in the tenor part. Sensitively following the poetic text, P. Chesnokov prepares a choral amplification of the dynamics of the lines "the first in the sky will brighten" in the dynamics of mf, and then, in a new key (A-dur), the bass part enters powerfully and solemnly in a fifth down ("elder brother's crown"). The bright colors of the reborn life characterize the harmonic language of the second part. The culminating points in the chorus of P. Chesnokov and the poetic text of F. Tyutchev match. The lines "And shines in crowns of gold/ The whole resurrected family!", which are the most emotionally colored in the poetic opus, and in the chorus sound in a densely saturated chord texture, bright dynamics, rather high tessitura against the background of the dominant organ point in the cadence. The combination of musical expressiveness means draws the image of powerful stone giants [Example 4]. Like S. Taneev, P. Chesnokov is a master of choral writing, the author of truly choral masterpieces.

Interesting conclusions can be drawn based on a comparative analysis of the poetic source and its embodiment in the choral opuses of the two composers. The bright poetic gift of F. Tyutchev's poem "The Alps" is expressed in the presence of two mediative thoughts: philosophical, connected with the future of Russia, and in the belief in the resurrection of the world created by the Creator. The choral compositions of S. Taneyev and P. Chesnokov show the distinctive features of each of the composers. Breadth of scope, monumentality is important for S. Taneyev's interpretative decision. The high pathos of his choir goes beyond the poetic content, not just complementing it, but giving birth to a new meaning, a new pathos associated with the victory of spirituality, truth. The discrepancy of the culminating points, the free handling of the verse metric, text changes are important elements of choral writing, which the conductor should pay attention to. P. Chesnokov's "Alps" are synonymous with the poetic text. The composer is sensitive and sensitive to the content of the poetic source, following the poetic caesures, accents, and culminating points. This is synonymous with meaning. There is a unison of the mediative thoughts of the poet and composer in the fusion of logos and melos, which is reflected in the general intonations, composition, rhythm, textural solutions, dynamic development.

Based on the above, it should be noted that in order to create a competent, in-depth interpretation, it is not enough for the head of the choral collective to analyze the choral score. Reaching a deeper level, penetration into the poet's and composer's worldview is carried out using an approach to the artistic whole that coincides with the subject of analysis in its ontological and axiological coordinates.

Analysis of a choral work in modern art studies, the movement of research thought from particulars to a higher idea, a mediative thought, which caused the appearance of a literary text, is understood. The mainstay for the lyrical hero F. Tyutchev's poem "The Alps" becomes the morning hour. The highest meaning is the miraculous transfiguration and resurrection as a universal salvation and good. Both P. Chesnokom and S. Taneyev managed to fully embody it in choral compositions. The close attention of the conductor, aimed at what higher purpose the means of musical expression serve, how the mediative thought of the poet manifests itself in the musical material, will allow more competently convey the meaning of the artistic whole to the listener. The result of such research work will be a meaningful, true and sincere interpretative solution and the subsequent embodiment of the choral composition a cappella on the poems of F. Tyutcheva on stage.A similar scheme in the analysis of choral compositions becomes possible to use when studying the problem of the musical embodiment of other poetic opuses. Thus, it becomes possible to expand the problem field by further developing a unified methodology in the analysis of synthetic genres.